1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for cooling containments.
2. History of the Related Art
It is known that, in certain industrial sectors, it is necessary to ensure energetic cooling of the walls of containments containing materials or substances likely to generate heat. This is more particularly the case of silos intended for storing irradiated nuclear fuels.
In many cases, such cooling is effected by heat exchange between the wall of the containment and the surrounding fluid, i.e. most often the ambient air. Simple natural convection may also be employed, but the efficiency of cooling depends directly on the contact surface between the fluid and the wall to be cooled, so that it is frequently indispensable to equip such a wall with ribs adapted substantially to increase the exchange surface. Now, in certain cases, the use of such ribs may prove inappropriate or difficult and expensive to employ.
German Patent Application No. 3244707 (VOX) discloses a system for cooling containments which employs a row of vertical tubes fixed to the outer wall of the containment with the aid of spaced clamps. This row of tubes is disposed inside an annular housing defined between the outer wall of the containment and a concentric outer envelope, and is embedded in a mass obtained by casting a hardenable material adapted to ensure good heat transfer by conduction. The ends of the tubes open out freely into the atmosphere so that they may be cooled by natural heat convection.
However, such a system appears to be fairly delicate to implement. In fact, it is necessary to reinforce the mass of cement or other material with the aid of vertical metallic reinforcements. Furthermore, in order to obtain good heat dissipation, spacers must be provided, disposed radially between the tubes, in order to connect the wall of the containment to the wall of the outer envelope, as well as perforated horizontal partitions which are traversed by the tubes and by such reinforcements.
It will be readily appreciated that these reinforcements, spacers and partitions complicate the construction of the structure and render it expensive.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome this drawback by providing a cooling device which, despite the simplicity of its production, has been proved efficient by tests.